Mobile Payment Systems and Services: An Introduction

Mobile commerce is a natural successor to electronic commerce. The capability to pay electronically coupled with a website is the engine behind electronic commerce. Electronic commerce has been facilitated by Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and shared banking networks, debit and credit card systems, electronic money and stored value applications, and electronic bill presentment and payment systems. Mobile payments are a natural evolution e-payment schemes that will facilitate mobile commerce. A mobile payment or m-payment may be defined, for the purposes, as any payment where a mobile device is used to initiate, authorize and confirm an exchange of financial value in return for goods and services (Au and Kauffman, 2007).